How does one say goodbye? To me, the only way is to say it with gratitude. For the past three years, every reader of D&D Beyond’s articles has been a blessing to my soul. I have loved engaging with you in the comments, answering your article suggestions as often as I can, and providing you my best thoughts, dreams, and schemes on a tri-, or more recently, bi-weekly basis.

Nevertheless, today is my last day as Lead Writer for D&D Beyond.

For three years, I’ve done my best to juggle a dozen different article series to give you loyal readers a mix of comfortable consistency and joyful surprise.  Some were tuned to be as broadly appealing as possible, like the Class 101 series and New Players’ Guide, which took aim at the vast landscape of brand-new D&D players and welcomed them to the game with open arms. (Class 101 also gave me a weekly opportunity to flex my prose-writing muscles. Writing flash fiction is hard, y’all!)

There’s a common saying that the number one way people got into D&D was when their older cousin came over with a set of D&D books and taught them how to play. That might not be totally true—I suspect Critical Role is now the number one source of new D&D players. Regardless, my goal when I stepped into the role of Lead Writer for D&D Beyond was to be an older cousin to all of you. In my own family, I am the eldest cousin, and I love it when my younger cousins ask me D&D questions and gushed about all the new characters they were going to create with the new options in Xanathar’s (and then Tasha’s, as of this year’s Christmas Zoom call). I always wanted to be there in comments with you, chatting, trading opinions, and keeping the discourse healthy and constructive.

That mission evolved over the years, and as more and more newbies became loyal readers, whose usernames and avatars I could recognize in a split-second. I hope I can properly express the joy it brought me to see a name I recognized post a long, insightful comment sharing their experiences and relating to other commenters beneath an article. I still wanted to be older cousin to all new players, but there was something more I knew could be done. The goal was now to encourage everyone to think deeply about the stories and games you love, crack open their shells and separate the good and the bad, and really look at what brings you joy. Once you’ve done that, you can start creating the sort of stories you want to experience yourself, and use them to express yourself.

To me, RPGs (D&D included), are an unparalleled form of creative expression and personal connection. The more you know about what you like and dislike about a game system—and more broadly, what you like and dislike about stories—the better you’ll be able to share your love with your friends. In the past year of 2020, I’ve felt more disconnected from the world around me than I ever have before (and I was really depressed in college, so that’s saying something), and D&D and the friends I play with every week have been my strongest tether to joy and the life I remember.

I hope the things I’ve written have helped you forge that tether for yourselves, too. I hope those words have inspired you to think deeply, to create ambitiously, to fail disastrously, and then learn and succeed magnificently.

I’m leaving D&D Beyond today, but I’m not leaving RPGs. My passion has always been game design, and creating opportunities for people to tell stories that center their unique experiences, and share that joy with their friends. That’s why I’ve written Encounters of the Week nearly every Monday for the past two years. It’s why I’ve written grand adventures in books like Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount in the past three years. I’m grateful to D&D Beyond and Fandom for giving me a platform to share with you what wisdom I’ve learned; both those scant fragments which I’ve intuited myself, and the vast wealth of knowledge I’ve inherited from people far wiser than I. I’m grateful to my creative director, Todd Kenreck, as well as all the guests on his videos and guest writers with whom we’ve worked tirelessly to create a creative community that elevates the manifold voices of our community; fine folks like James Introcaso, Makenzie de Armas, LaTia Jacquise, and truly far more people than I could hope to name in this brief paragraph.

And, most of all, I’m grateful to you. If you’ve read an article on this site, if you’ve left a thoughtful comment, if your thoughts have been sparked by even a single one of the hundreds of thousands of words I’ve written over the past three years—thank you. Your creativity is the beating heart and soul of D&D. And if you’re a new reader who is reading this farewell as their very first article on the site, I’m sorry I must leave before I can welcome you to the site. Hopefully, this archive of the best articles written by both myself and our guest writers will serve as a strong start to your journey into the grand, adventuresome wilderness of imagination that is Dungeons and Dragons.

As for me, my journey continues. I bid you my fondest farewell. I hope that you continue to enjoy using D&D Beyond. And, if you’ve enjoyed the encounters, articles, house rules, or meandering DM advice you’ve read here on D&D Beyond, you’ll keep an eye on where this journey takes me next. My Twitter, @jamesjhaeck, is the best place for that.  

The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

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James Haeck is now the former lead writer for D&D Beyond, yet he remains the co-author of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, and the Critical Role Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, and a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and other RPG companies. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his fiancée Hannah and their animal companions Mei and Marzipan. You can find him wasting time on Twitter at @jamesjhaeck.